Journal of a Poker Pro
Just wanted to check back in and share the promised photo from last post:
Fabio! If you watch top chef like me you'll recognize who that is. He was one of my favorite chefs from all seasons, and we got to enjoy a 7 course meal prepared by him at his new restaurant, Firenze. It was a great meal and great trip.
I've had a pretty good start to the year, with poker and everything else. Really stoked about the Olympics coming up, should be a crazy month!
I'm not even sure where to start. It was a weird year, in which I didn't really accomplish all the things I set out to do, but had some other success in areas I never really set out to do.
New year and a new city. It's been a good year in Vancouver, and I'm really pumped about the Olympics. The city is really starting to jump. I'm gonna stay here for another year I suppose, spending the summer in Vegas.
Vegas was easily the best part of my year. Meeting a bunch cool people, and having good success at the WSOP. Can't wait to head back next summer.
I drove across Canada too, don't know if I ever wrote about that. Bought a car in Toronto and took the trip with a good buddy over 4days. Great trip, great times.
Unfortunately I didn't get to do much more travelling. I'm planning to get somewhere in march. Maybe Malta, not sure. Oh and I'm heading to California this weekend for something I'm really looking forward too. It's a surprise for a friend who reads this blog so I can't say, but hopefully I come back with some pics.
2009 wasn't really what I wanted to do in regards to cashgames. I played about 1/2 the amount of hands I did in 2008, and my hourly was worse. I did run about $25k below expectation, so that had a little to do with it. But if it wasn't for that tournament the year would've been pretty bad results wise. Oh well, I'm pumped to crush in 2010.
I've been hanging out with a couple good players here in vancouver, and we've been talking a lot of poker. It's been great because we do a lot of discussions at the gym, so I've been getting in better shape.
My goal for the year is to never tilt. I know it's a bit unrealistic, but so far so good. I've been studying Tommy Angelo's Buddhist inspired 8 step path to poker enlightenment, and its been good for me. Lots of great gems in there, and I'm playing with a lot more emotional control.
I have some pretty lofty goals for the year. I'm really gonna to need to play and improve a lot to acheive them, but I have faith.
Best of luck to everyone in the new year, unless you happen to find yourself in a pot with me :)
well, i doubt i could be running any worse.
if you caught the wsop final table this week, you'd have seen how bad all my horses ran and how sick hot joe cada ran. so yeah that bet from the last post didnt work out too well for me. gg $500
but at least bcpc is in town, and the easy money is floating around town. time to crush cash games and own tourny donks!
right?
i busted in day one of each event, so gg $5k+.
also yesterday i had dinner with 15 of my closest 2+2 friends and gained the priveldge of buying everyone dinner after a failed credit card roulette bid. gg 2.5k. :(
so im stuck like $10k this month if you count my ftops fails. ugh.
even though everyone is in town this weekend im just gonna go into lockdown.
im just not in a partying mood.
im going to make $10k, no matter what it takes. long nights? 24hr sessions? peeing in water bottles? i dont care. im making it happen.
Well the final table of the WSOP main event goes off this weekend.
I'm really hoping Ivey wins because, well, he's the man. Check out the E:60 spot he did with ESPN:
I also made a prop bet with a buddy for the final table. We did a draft and I got first pick so obv my team is a lock. We have $500 on the winner, with Darvin Moon being a push.
Team Main:
Eric Buchman
Phil Ivey
Jeff Schulman
James Akenhead
Team Rick:
Steve Begleiter
Joe Cada
Kevin Schaffel
Antoine Saout
The only person I don't have that I want is Joe Cada. He's a beast, but I couldn't take him over Ivey.
I also heard Doyle and Negraneu have a 'must-win' prop bet, with Daniel taking Ivey, and Doyle taking Darvin Moon. If someone other than Ivey or Moon wins, the bet is off.
It's an even money bet... I'm not even sure who's side I like, but I think if I had to choose I'd go with Doyle's (moon). What do you think?
Alright, I have my next tourny lined up, and it's right in my own backyard!
The British Columbia Poker Championships start on November 12th, and the 4day $2500 main event starts on the 19th. There is a $500 and $1k event before the main event and I'll probably play in both if they don't sell out.
It's all going to be at the river rock casino. Never been, but I've heard it's nice. The cash games are supposed to be really soft too, so I may take some shots. One of my buddys here told me the 10/25NL games are pretty juicy so I'll get in that if I run good at 5/10NL.
I'll keep you all on updated on what happens.
So just to update you all on the propbet I made -- it's over.
The guy quit earlier today, which was pretty surprising. I mean I didn't think he had much of a chance, but I thought he'd tough it out longer.
Easy $1k. Feels like I won $4k though because my $3k was in escrow. :)
The easy money is nice as I've struggling on my end. Nothing serious, just breaking even since I got back to Vancouver. I feel pretty good though, about to clear some bonuses and reach some milestones so I'll have a nice influx of cash.
Until next time!
All you have to do is deposit before october 17th, and youre entered into the freeroll. Pretty awesome giveaway, can't wait to give it a shot.Free live streaming by Ustream
This guy above me thinks he can accumulate 830,000VPPs in 70 days. I don't think its possible.
I put up my $3000 to his $1000, and he got $45,000 action in total.
Should be fun to watch him struggle through it. Today is day 1.
I mean, supernova elite is a great value and awesome to get, but so many people struggle to achieve it with a whole year given. How this guy thinks he can get it in 70days is beyond me.
The guy will be doing updates at:
http://www.i-eat-fish.com
I wish him just enough luck to keep his sanity, but still end up failing the bet :)
I know WCOOP ended a week or so ago, but I've been traveling and havn't had much time to play lately, let alone post. I'm in toronto with my g/f for another week, and then to vancouver for a few months.
Overall a pretty unsuccessful series for me. I didn't have any deep runs, though I cashed in a few. The structures are just so amazing. You need to dedicate a lot of time to the tourneys, but they are so much fun with all the play involved.
In the main event, I got really shortstacked early and basically hung on for about 7hours as one of the shorter stacks in the tourney. Just stealing blinds, keeping my head above water until I got a big hand. I eventually got A10 and doubled through A9 (allin pre), and then K10 doubled through tsoprano's K9 (allin pre). I went from 6bbs to about 25bbs, when I picked up a trashy little pair of aces under the gun. I raised and got 3bet and ended up getting it in against QQ. The board 4flushed and I busted about 8 or 9hours in. :(
I'm really looking forward to pokerstars spring series, the SCOOP. Should be just as amazing.
In other news, I bought my first car! It's a 2003 infiniti G35, and so far I like it a lot. I've never needed my own car really, but I figure I deserve it. Oh and the best part is I paid for it with FPPs. I've been withdrawing my Pokerstar's bonuses into a separate account, and used all that money to pay for my new car in cash! it was a great feeling, thanks stars! :)
things are going pretty good.
having a pretty great summer cash wise, and now I just qualified for the $5200 WCOOP main event on stars.
pretty sweet. i might sell some action (like 1k or 2k) to guarantee myself some profit on the whole thing.
not too much else going on. heading back to toronto in a few weeks to see family and watch one of my best friends get married. should be great.
all for now, take care all
So I played that WSOP freeroll tournament yesterday and went 'deep'. I finished 20th for the $5500 package. I had a really comfortable stack at 30bbs but I ended up getting AKo in against a guy who had me covered. I think our table was 6 handed and I had been really aggressive against this guy because he was stealing a lot (he was probably the only guy I noticed playing well at the table). It was folded to him on the button and he raised. I 3-bet him from the SB for like the 4th time in an hour and he shoved QQ. I pretty much snapped him with my AK and lost the race. The pot wouldve put me in great position (like 2nd or 3rd) but it just wasn't meant to me. I think the hand basically played itself and I have no regrets.
Now apparently I can use the $5500 for the online world championship of poker (WCOOP), which would be nice to get free entry to the $5200 main event.
But I think I want to use it on a trip and live tournament, because thats so much more fun. Anyone have suggestions? I can't decide what to do or where to go.
Anyhow, back to the grind I go.
Well I'm back settled in Vancouver.
Bought some stuff for my grindroom (new 24" monitor and speakers) so I can put in some volume the next 2 and half months. Then back to toronto for a friend's wedding.
Now I'm just looking for a bike or something to get back in shape. 6 weeks of doing nothing but playing poker, eating out, and drinking beer took its toll on me. Hopefully I can get back into a good routine quickly.
Sunday is that million dollar freeroll on pokerstars that I qualified for. I've already 'won' a $5k package but hopefully I get lucky and can eek out some more value. Only 124 people get to play so I do have a decent shot. Here's the payout structure.
124th to 28th - $5000
18th - 27th - $5500
....
13th to 15th - $7000
10th to 12th - $8500
9 - $10,000
8 - $12,500
7 - $15,000
6 - $18,000
5 - $22,500
4 - $30,000
3 - $40,000
2 - $50,000
1 - $60,000
Busted out of the main event about 3hrs into day 2.
Got kind of shortstacked early and had 10k chips with blinds at 250/500 50ante.
MP opened to 1200 and a guy I was fairly confident was opening light 3bets to 3500. I look down at QQ in the SB and fistpump ship it in. I know the guy is commited, and he asks me 'do you want a call?' and I just smile and and say yeah because I'm obviously say ahead if he asks and i know he cant fold. He calls and flips up KQs. King in the window and I take the walk of shame.
All in all it was a great experience and a very successful WSOP.
I won the pokerstars freeroll yesterday which gets me into an exclusive online freeroll which pays out about $800,000 in packages. So my EV is about $7000 from that, and everyone gets a seat. So that should be awesome and is gonna take me to at least one more event for free. :)
I'm in vegas for 1 more week. Gonna take it easy for the most part, and I'll definitely hit up the pokerstars party on thursday. be sure to say hi if you see me.
main event kicked off today and i played day 1
i didnt really play any interesting hands, all pretty standard stuff. ended the day with 20k in chips gonna relax for the next few days and start crushing on day 2a.
event 32 this time
It was another $2k buyin with a few less runners (1500 i think?)
I busted 44th about an hour ago for just under $10,000. I got pretty unlucky actually, getting KK in preflop against AQs (I 4 bet-shoved and he called) for what would've been a double average stack. He flopped a flush and I got like zero sweat. It was the kids first live event ever and he was shaking so much raking in the chips and for like the next 5hands afterwards. It was cute. Soon after I called a late position shove with AJs to find myself up against ATo for what would've brought me back to average. Two tens on the flop and I get no help and I'm down to about 10bbs. I ended up shoving blind versus blind with K3s and the same kid with AQ made a pretty sick call with K8o and busted me. GG main. 
So i'm at like $51,000 on a $5500 investment so far this series.
my girlfriend flies in on friday so i wont be playing anymore events this week. i might play one more $1500 event before the main event, but not even sure about that. i might just relax and grind online.
well thats about it. im off to have a few beers by the pool while i think of what might have been
so i've been out in vegas for a week now.
staying with a bunch of the MSNL/HSNL full ring guys and everyone is awesome. we're having a lot of fun and winning a bunch of money.
i played my first WSOP event on thursday and ending up going really deep. it was event 11 ($2000 NLHE 3day) and i finished 12th out of 1600ish for $41,000. easily my biggest tourny score to date.
my run good continued last night online when I shipped the $77 freezeout on stars for about $3500. everything seems to be going in the right direction. I'll play a few more events before the main event, so keep your eyes opened and expect some big things :).
yeah im pretty much a tourny pro now ;)
so i've never really had a lucky coin before but i just found one.
yesterday i was unsure if i wanted to play the $200r tournament so i flipped a coin, and it said no. so i didnt. then i saw a similar tourny structure on stars but it was a $20r so i flipped again and it said to play. 8hrs later i finished 3rd/800 for like 3.6k.
since then ive been flipping it, asking if i should make calls when close, when to end sessions, which site to play, when to leave tables, etc, and am now on a sick heater.
to test it, i asked it if the worst player at one of my tables was a good player and the coin said yes. i was a little upset initially but then i realized my coin just has a good sense of humour. so now its not only my lucky coin, its also a close friend.
things are good on my end. vancouver is nice, met a bunch of poker players out here and having fun with them and old freinds i made in korea.
final tabled a few tourneys this week and won like $9k. pretty nice rush.
the year isnt going as well as last to this point, but as long as there isnt another stock market tank i should still do better this year. especially after i win the world series.
so yeah...i'll be out in vegas for all of the WSOP, june 1st-july17th. living with 4 other poker players in a house just off the strip. probbaly play a bunch of small events and then the main event. wish me lucky
